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Super Bowl Fans Prefer Veggies Over Pizza + Other Snazzy Stats

The Super Bowl is tomorrow and NFL fans are throwing their bets on their favorite teams. This championship game certainly has come a long way since the first Super Bowl game way back in 1967, part of the merger agreement between NFL and the American Football League (AFL).

Commercial boost

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Considering the sheer reach of the game’s popularity, there are many industries that ride in on the coattails of its fame. A recent study from Nielsen reveals that half-time performers at the Super Bowl are guaranteed to increase their music sales. Madonna, for example, only had 197,000 digital track purchases a week before Super Bowl 2012, but numbers increased by 165 percent, hitting 522,000 a week after the game.

“Regardless of the performer’s age or whether the songs are ‘oldies but goodies’ or new, a song featured during the Super Bowl halftime show can yield an exponential jump in sales, as music fans discover—or rediscover—an artist and their songs,” said David Bakula, SVP of Client Insights at Nielsen.

It also appears that the “commercial break” is now vital to the Super Bowl experience. Another study from Nielsen found that 91 percent of viewers who are looking forward to Sunday’s game are also excited about the advertisements. Funny commercials, sentimental ads, and campaigns for products previously seen on Super Bowl Sunday are expected, with viewer anticipation reaching 81 percent, 25 percent, and 26 percent respectively.

“The results of the survey tell us that consumers consider ads to be part of the main event rather than an adjunct to the event,” said James Russo, senior vice president of global insights at Nielsen.

Chatty consumers

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Unlike most Super Bowl games in the past, consumers in today’s connected era are expected to talk about the commercials during the game on social networks, and this is a huge opportunity for companies to engage with them through online conversation.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they will watch the game at home or at a friend’s, and are getting more and more conscious about their food intake as they prefer vegetables over pizza for the game. While carbonated drinks and beer strongly define the Super Bowl spirit, liquor such as tequila and cognac are also getting more popular.

There are 111.3 million Americans who watched the Super Bowl on TV last year, and 13.1 million who visited the NFL website. Women are almost equally hooked to the game as men, accounting for 43 percent of the total viewership. As of December 2012, there are around 3.3 million people who used the NFL app. Check out this infographic for more viewership figures!

About Kristina Farrah

A ninja, a tech enthusiast and a lover of sparkly things. Writing in the tech space has become an important part of my role as an observer and historian. As passionate as I am in what I do, I look forward to telling stories of how technological advancement broke out to unprecedented levels, and that I was right there in the middle of it –watching the world change before my very eyes.